Living in a van makes it easier to care for my dog
I knew Scout would be fine with van life. Her experience was something we considered from the moment we started dreaming about living full time on the road. (Our van conversion company commented multiple times on the fact that we designed our entire layout around fitting a crash-tested dog crate.)
What I didn’t anticipate was that our life together might actually feel easier once we moved into our bright yellow home on wheels.
That’s exactly what’s happened.
There are still challenges, of course—this other article highlights a few ways living in a van has also made some parts of our dog ownership harder—but by and large? Meeting Scout’s needs has never been simpler.
1) All of our dog’s things are with us (we can’t forget them!)
Everything we own—both human and dog stuff—fits inside our van. Besides a single bin of wall art and my wedding dress that we left in my parents’ basement, our worldly belongings travel with us everywhere we go.
I can’t overstate how convenient this is.
Once in a while in our “old life” we’d arrive somewhere and realize we’d forgotten something important. Scout’s favorite frisbee got left sitting on the counter at home when we rolled up to the beach. I parked near the coffee shop patio only to realize I didn’t have a leash. We found ourselves running out of water or treats or poop bags.
But now? It’s impossible to forget—or misplace—pretty much anything. If Scout needs a drink, I just grab her bowl off the van’s floor. If she wants to play, we have an entire basket of toys at our disposal. If she (god forbid) gets injured, we keep a canine first aid kit within reach.
Planning for outings requires no real effort… which means I can channel my mental resources into more important things, like throwing myself into our games and being present in the current moment
No bathroom break laziness
We didn’t live in a house with Scout until more than two years after I adopted her. Before that, we called three different apartment buildings home—and only had one ground-floor unit. Basically, just taking our dog out to pee required:
Putting her on a leash
Bringing treats in case we encountered scary distractions in shared hallways
Carrying some type of deterrent for off-leash dogs (like pet corrector or citronella spray) because so many of our neighbors didn’t follow the leash rules
Walking down multiple flights of stairs
Make no mistake: I realize those are definitely “first-world problems”. But sometimes I felt exhausted just thinking about everything we might encounter on a single bathroom break. (Life with a sensitive dog can be tough.)
Living in a van now, though? Outside is only ever a few steps away!
When we’re boondocking on public land, letting Scout use the bathroom is as simple as opening the sliding door and telling her she’s allowed to jump out (then patrolling the area to pick up her poop afterward, of course). In campgrounds, she loves to patrol and sunbathe while attached to a sturdy long line. And even in parking lots like Walmart or Cabela’s, we’re usually able to park right alongside a patch of grass to make potty trips simple.
In short: Our dog gets more time outside than ever before. And I’m never tempted to postpone taking her out.
She always has the comfort of her familiar space
Scout is a ridiculously sweet, hilarious dog. She’s also incredibly sensitive—both to social pressure and to the surrounding environment.
At the start of our journey together, our heeler would shut down in new places. It took over a year before she was confident enough to play simple games outside (even in empty parks). The first time we traveled with her she couldn’t be left alone in our Airbnb without panicking (she didn’t have separation anxiety at home but was stressed in the unfamiliar situation).
You might think that living in a van is a horrible fit for a dog like that, then. We’re visiting new places all the time! But it’s actually perfect—because even when we park somewhere we’ve never been before, Scout still has the comfort of her familiar space.
Hermes is our home. Our dog loves her van. She feels safe in it. So if she gets overwhelmed? Her familiar bed is right there waiting.
This anchor, coupled with the confidence building and training work we’ve put in, has equipped Scout to confidently tackle more new environments than ever before.
We can balance bringing our dog with us and leaving her behind
Because our dog feels so comfortable in her home on wheels, we have tons of flexibility in where we do and don’t bring her.
It used to be that we had to plan our whole outing before leaving the house. How long would we be gone? Did Scout pee recently enough to hold her bladder? Should we bring her with us? What if the beach or patio was way more crowded than we anticipated and she hated it? What if we wanted to stop somewhere that wasn’t dog friendly on the way home, like to get groceries or run another errand? Could she safely be left in the car?
We cycled through so many logistical questions to make sure we were being fair to her.
Now that we live in a van, our dog is effectively with us 24/7… but also able to safely spend time alone due to her separation training and our build’s temperature control system. (You can read a more in-depth description of how we safely leave her behind in this article.)
We never have to think hours ahead when leaving the house anymore! We can roll up to a destination and decide once we’re there and able to scope everything out if she’d enjoy tagging along or not. We can tug with her in a city park before snagging a meal by ourselves. It’s the perfect balance.
Our dog gets more social time with us than ever
While we do enjoy outings without Scout on occasion, there’s no denying that we’re with her more than ever now that we live on the road.
When I first adopted my cattle dog, I worked full time out of the house (and didn’t live with Sean yet). By the time we moved in with him, I could do my job remotely but he still had to commute to a traditional office environment. We spent the bulk of our waking hours doing tasks that didn’t involve Scout.
Today? We spend the majority of our lives all together as a family!
Sean and I both have flexible part-time schedules. When we are in front of our computers, Scout is always within our sight (most importantly, we are within hers). And when we aren’t working on writing or designing engineering processes? We’re likely playing with our heeler, snuggling in the bed, or simply relaxing in the fresh air side by side.
Scout strikes me as an introvert. (Sean and I both are too.) She doesn’t need a broad range of social interactions to feel fulfilled—but she does need deep, dedicated time with her family. Van life makes that easy.
